After searches for “suicide” on Amazon brought up a number of items to aid in causing a customer’s own death, the tech giant pledged to add helpline information to the pages of certain products.
Reuters reported on Thursday that search results on Amazon’s U.S. and India marketplace pulled up harmful products. Searching for “suicide” on the former reportedly brought up “suicide kits” and nooses, and searches for the term on the latter brought up sleeping pills, pesticides, and a “How To Commit Suicide” book.
Amazon took down the item listings for the aforementioned book and the rope nooses, Reuters reported. However, when Gizmodo tried to search for nooses on the U.S. marketplace, the autofill options still included those related to suicide, and when selected, pulled up a page-full of ropes.
An Amazon spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email that they are removing the autofill.
The suicide helpline message will show up for certain search results and product pages for users who are searching suicide-related queries, an Amazon spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email. It will include information about free and private help through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and will roll out in the United States and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks. Gizmodo did not see any suicide prevention information as of Friday when making suicide-related searches.